Content strategy in the house

I’m back from the 2009 IA Summit and Content Strategy Consortium. I’ve caught up on sleep, put away my Graceland souvenirs, and watched “Twilight” (ah, shaddap…  you know you will too). I’ve had time to reflect on all the presentations, conversations, and ideas, peruse my notes, and crystallize what I plan to report back to my colleagues and readers (all 24 of the latter).

I was excited and flattered to be included in the first (as far as we knew) Content Strategy Consortium. There were 22 of us there, all committed to exploring and evangelizing the practice of content strategy. We talked and argued and presented and kvetched and ate and tired and rallied and talked and argued some more, and it was fabulous. So much passion and talent in that room; my content peeps are incredibly intelligent, articulate, and engaging.

Since the consortium, I’ve been asked several times, “What did you decide?” But really, I hadn’t expected to come away with a list of iron-clad decisions and rules for content strategy. It was a day of discussion and identifying questions and next steps.

For instance, what is the definition of content strategy? How are we different from information architecture? Are we different from information architecture? Is search engine optimization part of content strategy? Do we want to form an association? Do we want a whole content conference, or a track at an existing conference? Why are all these cookies shaped like ducks? (We figured that one out later.)

So, what did I come away with? I left knowing this is the start of something good. Content strategy has always existed on the web; it’s been handled by visual designers, copywriters, information architects, marketing, and engineers. Even having no content strategy is a strategy – just a really, really bad one. We’re at the forefront of the emergence and recognition of content strategy as a true discipline, with professionals dedicated to making sure everything that goes into a website has a purpose, fulfills the appropriate needs, engages the user, and works within a thoughtful user experience design plan.

I also came away with a great new network of people. These are seriously smart people, folks. (See Rachel Lovinger’s blog post for the list of attendees and their Twitter handles.) It was so much fun to get to know them and talk about content, user experience, and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

I want to thank Kristina Halvorson at Brain Traffic and Karen McGrane from Bond Art + Science for initiating this effort and getting us all together.

I’m really excited about the future content strategy. Are you?

Making up twords

I guess we should have seen it coming when e-commerce first became a word.  E-business, E-marketing, E-mail, E-vites (and the inevitible bastardizations – “how do you un-evite someone??”).

Next came the i-words.  iPod, iPhone, iHome, iRanOutOfBrandNamesSoIPrefixEverythingWithI.

But I guess those are still all reasonably ok.  It’s this Twitter thing that finally threw us off a cliff and into an endless abyss of grotesque word-concoctions (in my humble opinion, of course).  I mean, really.  Do we need a “twictionary”?  Well, whether we need one or not, apparently a bunch of people cared enough to make one:
http://twictionary.pbwiki.com

So what’s your least favorite tword?  I’m gonna go with Puntwitocracy.  What a blotch on the English language.

And while we’re on the subject of Twitter.  I’m assuming everyone has seen this video by now.  But it’s still good to laugh at ourselves – especially since @deliciouswords is pretty active over there in the twitverse…

The content strategist elevator pitch

I thought I’d follow up on this post where I was given the opportunity to share with a colleague what I do and how we can work together efficiently. It’s a beautiful gift, really. How often are we given that opportunity? Most of us (yeah, I’m including myself in the “most”) are often so wrapped up in our own disciplines we forget to inquire about what others bring to the table. And yet, how indignant we become when those others just don’t get what we do (um… guilty again).

So it’s great to have a little 90-second elevator pitch ready to go for those times when you’re invited to talk about what you do (or even when you’re not). It’s also handy to have a version of this speech at the ready when someone outside of your industry, like a family member, asks what you do for a living (see Brain Traffic’s awesome example of this).

Here’s my speech:

“My job is to help figure out what our content needs are based on business goals. I help determine if there’s old content we can repurpose, or if new content needs to be created. I also work on things like voice and tone, so we can make sure we’re using the appropriate language and creating the right feel for our audience. What works best for me is coming in at the beginning and working directly with the entire team to help shape the overall project. In my experience, what doesn’t work well is trying to determine content needs after everything’s been designed, and then trying to find, create, and place content into predetermined spaces.”

After my little speech, I then ask my own questions, including:

• What is your role?
• Have you ever worked with a content strategist before? How did it go?
• What works best for you?
• What do you think the business goals are for this project?
• Who is our audience?
• How would you like the content delivered?
• What would success look like?

Both the speech and the questions will vary depend on your own role, your audience, and the project.

Looking ahead, it’s my hope that when a content strategist walks into the project meeting, cries of, “Ah! The content strategist is here! We can begin now!” fill the air. Until then, it’s up to us to make sure our teams not only understand the value we bring to a project, but also to recognize their roles and help make it easy for all of us to work together.

Progress!

Yesterday I met with an interaction designer about a cool project. “You know,” he said, “you’re the first content strategist I’ve worked with since I’ve been here.” I found this a little odd since he’s been at the company for seven months now. Seven months and had yet to work with a content strategist? Huh.

But then he went on to say, “So, how do content strategists work? What would be best for you?”

Wow! This was interesting. He didn’t say, “Okay, here’s a space. I need a word for it” or, “Well, it’s all done, we just need to replace the lorem ipsum.” He invited me to explain what it is I do, and to suggest ways in which we could best work together. I gave him a two-minute overview of what tends to work and what doesn’t, and away we went.

Even though the whole situation wasn’t perfect — the project was well underway before I was brought in — it was really great to see content strategy being considered and explored.

It’s all about the little victories.